You Never Know…

I broke into the world of television production early on… I was actually still a senior in high school when I began my post production gig at a company in Dallas. During those formative years I learned a very valuable lesson from a teacher (more than a teacher really - now a good friend):

“You never know who you’re talking to…” he told me once.

That short sentence has become a motto during my career.This week I received a phone call from a photographer I had briefly worked with during my time at a local news station (KDAF) as a broadcast designer. He had a corporate training gig for his production company that he needed to add some pizzaz to. He commissioned Figaro Interactive, LLC. to create several animations of CAT5e and Fiber Optic cables.

It had been a while since working in 3D… My first real gig in the biz was as a junior 3D animator (working in Newtek’s Lightwave). I had to knock the rust off in a hurry (five day turnaround).The modeling was fairly simple - I tool several reference photos and dropped them into the background of Modeler and came up with some fairly convincing models quickly enough. The real challenge was working with Lightwave’s incompetence at animation snake like objects.A quick google turned up a useful (and free!) plugin called Trailer. Here’s a tutorial by Kevin Schmitt that explains what it takes to deform a cable along a path.

And here’s what we came up with:

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In a world that is constantly getting smaller and more inter-connected it’s very important to remember that at the end of the day connections are really what drive creative business and everyone you meet is a connection waiting to be made.